2010 Kamado Cookers Update
March 2010.
At long last they're coming, NEW STOCK! Brand new Kamado Grill Domes fresh from production are in transit now.
Selling these things is one thing, getting them is another! There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to getting a 'hand built' cooker from the northern region of India, packed safley into a container then by road to sea port. It then travels to Singapore before swapping ships and heading to Brisbane, then to our warehouse for unpacking then repacked and onto transport again to you!
Rest assured that these are not mass produced cookers in some giant factory, they are a labour of passion and that follows through to us selling them.
So thanks for waiting, cook up a storm when you get yours and don't forget to tell your friends!
******
WET WET WET
If you live in Qld this time of year can be down right depressing we get sooooo much rain! Has been a big wet this year and was also last year, but what does it mean for Kamado cooking?
1.You get wet cooking out doors if your cooker is not under cover!
2.Mould! Yep good ol' mould, it's wet and warm around here, and especially inside your cooker (they will let some moisture in through the seals and lid) combined with left over food particles and fat on the cooking grid and no cooking for a few days and nice grey smelly mould forms!
What to do? Take your grid out and scrub with hot soapy water, scrub out your cooker with a brush to remove mould, empty your used charcoal, it will be mouldy and damp also.
Leave lid open wide on a warm sunny day to 'air and dry out'.
Put new charcoal in, clean cooking grid and away you go.
Probably best to leave your cooker at least under some sort of roofing.
Charcoals ain't all the same!
Good news is according to some recent statistics I have seen and just judging by what I see in the shops charcoal cooking is on the rise! More brands are available now than a few years ago, some imported and some Australian, here are some indicators without being 'scientific'
These were all tested in 2009/10 summer.
1. Argentinian sourced hardwood natural charcoal, was chunky, nice thick paper bag, 10kg bag clean product little dust or waste, bugger to light but once lit burned well and long, little flavour or odour slightly smoky , priced well, found this is that big monster hardware part of the business group that owns half of retail Australia! 6/10.
2. Indonesian natural hard wood, small to med chunky, nice paper bag, 3 kg clean product little dust or waste, easy to light, medium burn time, little flavour or odour, no smoke, priced ok, possibly the most popular and easily available, in BBQ stores and hardwares. 8/10
3. American 'oak' from that 'green' kamado company!, nice paper bag, here's the catch though! it's 19 pounds in weight not kilos! Which makes it expensive, its a big bag of air really! great charcoal, medium to large chuck, clean, little or dust, easy to light good burn characteristics, no real smell or odour a little smoke, available at the BBQ store chain that you see on TV, cost brings down the score. 6/10
4. 'Natural Coconut charcoal' well as natural as a perfectly formed pillow shape of charcoal can be, last time I checked coconuts were big brown hairy things....this stuff is CRAP avoid, stinks, extremely ashy, hard to light poor burn, full of god knows what fillers, same price as all the other stuff, actually leaves a horrid taste in the food also, found mine at that big giant hardware chain! avoid. 2/10
5. 'Natural compressed coconut hexagonal shaped briquetes' better than above, low flame short to med burn time, little smoke or ash, no flavour harder to light, nothing special and kind of expensive for the amount in a box. 5/10
6. 'Australian Red Gum' , comes in either a small bag 3kg or big 10 or 20kg bags the big bags have decent size chunks, the small bags do not much too small. I had high hopes for this seeing it's one of the more common and easy to get especially in the southern states. Very easy to light, very flamey burn med to high temp, little or no smoke flavour or odour but really short burn time is the killer, so best suited to grills, pizza etc not any long cooks. Is good value. 6.5/10
7. 'Australian Gidgee' , still is the leader in Natural charcoal in Australia best light, burn characteristics by a mile, best flavour and odour and low smoke, downside can be ashy and comes in 10 or 20kg bags that are mostly 'single lined' which makes it a very messy product to store and handle, reduces the overall score, but is best allround product still, but not that easy to get, especially in the Qld wet season when the production facility can be flooded in for weeks! 8/10
8. 'Compressed Natural logs' normally hexagonal tubes with a hollow centre, the 'match' company has their own brand in a 4kg paper bag and we access an Indonesion product in a 10kg plastic lined box.
Both product are very similar made from compressed saw dust and wood chips etc, compressed by a special machine to form the tubes, they claim 100% natural and no fillers etc are used.
No smell, no odour massive heat once they get going and longest burn time by far, very little ash, great value also. Downside? Really hard to light on its own. The best way to use it is mixed in with natural lump charcoal or as the base with the natural lump on top, once the natural is up and burning strong it will get the tube stuff fired up. Highly recomended I use this, but you must blend it with the easier to light lump charcoal to get it fired up otherwise it's a disaster. 7/10
Yet to test as it's hard to get all over Australia is 'Mallee Root' it's from the Mallee regions of Vic and SA, from all reports amazing burn time, temp and flavour just real hard to get.
Remember we use 'natural charcoal' in our cookers not BBQ briquetes or unburnt timber, natural charcoal only.
Happy Cooking
Michael
At long last they're coming, NEW STOCK! Brand new Kamado Grill Domes fresh from production are in transit now.
Selling these things is one thing, getting them is another! There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to getting a 'hand built' cooker from the northern region of India, packed safley into a container then by road to sea port. It then travels to Singapore before swapping ships and heading to Brisbane, then to our warehouse for unpacking then repacked and onto transport again to you!
Rest assured that these are not mass produced cookers in some giant factory, they are a labour of passion and that follows through to us selling them.
So thanks for waiting, cook up a storm when you get yours and don't forget to tell your friends!
******
WET WET WET
If you live in Qld this time of year can be down right depressing we get sooooo much rain! Has been a big wet this year and was also last year, but what does it mean for Kamado cooking?
1.You get wet cooking out doors if your cooker is not under cover!
2.Mould! Yep good ol' mould, it's wet and warm around here, and especially inside your cooker (they will let some moisture in through the seals and lid) combined with left over food particles and fat on the cooking grid and no cooking for a few days and nice grey smelly mould forms!
What to do? Take your grid out and scrub with hot soapy water, scrub out your cooker with a brush to remove mould, empty your used charcoal, it will be mouldy and damp also.
Leave lid open wide on a warm sunny day to 'air and dry out'.
Put new charcoal in, clean cooking grid and away you go.
Probably best to leave your cooker at least under some sort of roofing.
Charcoals ain't all the same!
Good news is according to some recent statistics I have seen and just judging by what I see in the shops charcoal cooking is on the rise! More brands are available now than a few years ago, some imported and some Australian, here are some indicators without being 'scientific'
These were all tested in 2009/10 summer.
1. Argentinian sourced hardwood natural charcoal, was chunky, nice thick paper bag, 10kg bag clean product little dust or waste, bugger to light but once lit burned well and long, little flavour or odour slightly smoky , priced well, found this is that big monster hardware part of the business group that owns half of retail Australia! 6/10.
2. Indonesian natural hard wood, small to med chunky, nice paper bag, 3 kg clean product little dust or waste, easy to light, medium burn time, little flavour or odour, no smoke, priced ok, possibly the most popular and easily available, in BBQ stores and hardwares. 8/10
3. American 'oak' from that 'green' kamado company!, nice paper bag, here's the catch though! it's 19 pounds in weight not kilos! Which makes it expensive, its a big bag of air really! great charcoal, medium to large chuck, clean, little or dust, easy to light good burn characteristics, no real smell or odour a little smoke, available at the BBQ store chain that you see on TV, cost brings down the score. 6/10
4. 'Natural Coconut charcoal' well as natural as a perfectly formed pillow shape of charcoal can be, last time I checked coconuts were big brown hairy things....this stuff is CRAP avoid, stinks, extremely ashy, hard to light poor burn, full of god knows what fillers, same price as all the other stuff, actually leaves a horrid taste in the food also, found mine at that big giant hardware chain! avoid. 2/10
5. 'Natural compressed coconut hexagonal shaped briquetes' better than above, low flame short to med burn time, little smoke or ash, no flavour harder to light, nothing special and kind of expensive for the amount in a box. 5/10
6. 'Australian Red Gum' , comes in either a small bag 3kg or big 10 or 20kg bags the big bags have decent size chunks, the small bags do not much too small. I had high hopes for this seeing it's one of the more common and easy to get especially in the southern states. Very easy to light, very flamey burn med to high temp, little or no smoke flavour or odour but really short burn time is the killer, so best suited to grills, pizza etc not any long cooks. Is good value. 6.5/10
7. 'Australian Gidgee' , still is the leader in Natural charcoal in Australia best light, burn characteristics by a mile, best flavour and odour and low smoke, downside can be ashy and comes in 10 or 20kg bags that are mostly 'single lined' which makes it a very messy product to store and handle, reduces the overall score, but is best allround product still, but not that easy to get, especially in the Qld wet season when the production facility can be flooded in for weeks! 8/10
8. 'Compressed Natural logs' normally hexagonal tubes with a hollow centre, the 'match' company has their own brand in a 4kg paper bag and we access an Indonesion product in a 10kg plastic lined box.
Both product are very similar made from compressed saw dust and wood chips etc, compressed by a special machine to form the tubes, they claim 100% natural and no fillers etc are used.
No smell, no odour massive heat once they get going and longest burn time by far, very little ash, great value also. Downside? Really hard to light on its own. The best way to use it is mixed in with natural lump charcoal or as the base with the natural lump on top, once the natural is up and burning strong it will get the tube stuff fired up. Highly recomended I use this, but you must blend it with the easier to light lump charcoal to get it fired up otherwise it's a disaster. 7/10
Yet to test as it's hard to get all over Australia is 'Mallee Root' it's from the Mallee regions of Vic and SA, from all reports amazing burn time, temp and flavour just real hard to get.
Remember we use 'natural charcoal' in our cookers not BBQ briquetes or unburnt timber, natural charcoal only.
Happy Cooking
Michael
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